The Cyrus cylinder, made of clay and inscribed with cuneiform, was found on a dig in Babylon in 1979 before being acquired by the British Museum.It is a deeply unimpressive looking object – about the size and shape of a rugby ball, made from hardened clay and incised all over with the stick-like characters of Babylonian cuneiform. And yet despite an unpromising appearance, it is hard to think of an artefact freighted with such significance for so many different peoples. Made shortly after Cyrus of Persia captured Babylon in 539BC, the Cyrus cylinder records how the ruler allowed deported peoples to return to their homelands and ushered in an era of religious tolerance in his new, multiethnic empire.

For Jews and Christians, it is the object that – along with passages of Isaiah – records the end of Jewish exile in Babylon. In Iran, it has by turns been used as a symbol of the shah's power and, most recently, when the cylinder toured to Tehran in 2010, was adopted as a rallying cry for Palestinian freedom by the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. For others, it is the first declaration of human rights, and an international symbol of religious tolerance. For Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, to which it belongs, it is the "first press release".

Next year, it will become clear how the Cyrus cylinder will be read in the US, when, for the first time, it is to be lent to museums across the Atlantic.

General disclaimer: Whenever you do not understand what I mean, or feel something offending in what I wrote, please first keep in mind that English is not my mother tongue and maybe I have expressed myself wrong or did not choose the correct words.

admin wrote:The reference to Freemasons is revealed in the Royal Arch, = ' Cyrus King of Persia ' [ now Iran ]

Not just the Royal Arch, but in the AASR as well - the character of Cyrus plays a significant part in the 15th Degree, Knight of the East or Sword.

Cyrus is the key player in the "Knight of the Sword" in the Red Cross Council (In Ireland, US and now England, the Council of Knight Masons) the first of the three Degrees of the Captivity - Knight of the Sword, Knight of the East, Knight of the East and West.